Monday, August 5, 2013

When my firstborn was a young child, asked whom he loves the most, he would reply fast and with full confidence, "Myself." Informed that I love him more than I love myself, my little one would say, "That is wrong. You should love yourself more."

Then, his brother came. Asked whom he loves the most, he didn't answer at once. When he replied, his voice was full of wonder as he mentioned his brother's name. "I love him the most. I love him more than myself."

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Three main characters in Reason Reigns are named Josephine in honor of my mother. I rushed to finish Reason Reigns so Mother could see the book version, but she passed away on January 17, 2008. She lives in my mind and in Reason Reigns. So do my father (Cissero) and my mother-in-law (Vangel). In three occasions celebrating Mother’s life, I gave the following tribute:

“Ma, I see you now, thin to the bones, ravaged by time. Yet, I see a strong woman who battled life’s challenges with nonstop hard work and steel determination.
I see a beautiful life. Unbowed by circumstance. Forging ahead through numerous hard knocks to make a better way for loved ones.
I see a loving mother, a wonderful grandma. As a grandmother, you were a model of excellence, my beau ideal.

If I did not make you happy enough as you so overwhelmingly deserved, surely, Roark-1 and Roark-2 did, as everyone of your grandchildren and great grandchildren did.

For you, his beloved Grandma, privacy-conscious Roark-1 allowed me to speak of how he has always cherished you. You frequently visited and doted on Roark-1. He greatly appreciated your delicious dishes. Once, I cooked igado; Roark-1 commented, “It doesn’t taste like Grandma’s.” You patiently waited on him. You did not want a harsh word, a hard tone directed at him. Without prodding, the ever independent-minded Roark-1 often told you, “I love you, Grandma.” My little boy saw your goodness, and identified what you had for him and for everyone in your family: great love.

Roark-1 voiced what I did not tell you often enough, “I love you.” But, I and those who cherish you will say it often for a lifetime, and you will hear it in heaven. I love you.
From here on, whenever I see Roark-1, Roark-2, and any of your grandchildren and great grandchildren: I will see you. I will see your beauty, your love, your goodness.
Though I had hoped that this day will never come, until we see you again: Thank you; we love you.”

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Best premises and good fortune!

Reason Reigns and Royal Serf - A Hearing

“It’s not criminals who provoke great hatred, it’s honest men.” The words of a polymath and polyglot executed by tyrants at age 35: Dr. Jose Rizal.

Honesty is fidelity to the truth. The truth is what conforms to reality. Integrity is fidelity to logic. It is the refusal to hold contradictions; it is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds; it is honoring one’s mental creations by giving them physical existence.

I hold that the honest would accord my novels, Reason Reigns and Royal Serf, a hearing. I expect hatred from the moral descendants of the executioners of Dr. Rizal and the persecutors of Galileo, and from the enemies of the principle of individual liberty. They destroy rather than stand the test of truth and reason.

Reason Reigns extols independent thinkers, and Royal Serf honors the Declaration of Independence. These novels proclaim that the right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to selfishness.

Royal Serf’s Apollo says: “One not concerned with oneself has no desire to live. The concept of one’s concern for oneself, represented by the word selfishness, has been twisted to mean malevolence towards others. Those who desire to live but accept the twisted meaning of selfishness unwittingly facilitate insidious destroyers. Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, destroyers demonize their core by associating callousness and malevolence with selfishness.”

Apollo responds to this request from an interviewer: “Use major swindler Bernard Madoff to contrast a selfish man with a selfless man.” -

“The basic selfishness criteria are self-preservation and self-reliance followed by self-love and self-respect. Bernard Madoff is not self-reliant. A dependent, he fed off his victims. Unmindful of losing his liberty, he committed massive fraud. Self-preservation is clearly absent – Madoff does not value himself. He fails even the basic selfishness test. Madoff is selfless.”

Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love.

The sixteenth amendment, a stick-up of hard-earned wages, tramples on the Declaration of Independence and incinerates property rights. The Antitrust Law spits on logic, puffing up that free competition must be enforced! Undefined, flexible, contradictory laws are hailed. Sacrifice is the Holy Grail. Selfishness is trumpeted as having horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork.

Honesty demands that one’s soul be put on trial: The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil. Integrity must be summoned to reclaim the Declaration of Independence from the clutches of sacrifice glorifiers.